‘Server attack’ could be security firm scandal: MD Delhi official (Interview)
‘Server attack’ could be security firm scandal: MD Delhi official (Interview)
On Sunday, news came that the server of the government-owned telecommunication company Nepal Telecom had been hacked. The hacker, which is under the protection of the Chinese government, was involved in the hack, according to US cybersecurity company Recorded Future. The cyber attack revealed that the data of Nepal Telecom was stolen and even put up for sale.
How is Nepal Telecom looking at this incident in this regard? How could this be? Is there really a cyber attack on the servers and systems of the telecom? These are the questions we have asked the managing director of Nepal Telecom, Delhi Adhikari.
Reports came out on Sunday that Nepal Telecom’s server had been hacked. It came out that foreign countries were attacking Nepal’s telecom servers along with other countries to sell data. What has your study done so far?
The report states that the IP address is 202.70.66.146, it belongs to one of our customers in Jaulakhel. This is an IP client of Public IP.
All it can do is penetrate the public IP and attack the network of any public IP. But no matter how many systems we have, database systems, billing systems are not in any public network.
All our systems are connected to the firewall. The next layer of firewalls was also installed last year to protect the overall system. As a result, there has been no unauthorized access to the critical system.
What is possible is that friends may have access to any of the network terminals for personal use, such as planning, analyzing, and mining data. Access is possible if the computer connected to the Internet is turned on.
Today we tell you exactly what happened. Nothing has happened in the critical system as rumored outside.
What type of server is the so-called attacked server?
The IP given in the report is the IP of the customer. This is the IP of a customer who lives in Jaulakhel. Our concern is that something may have happened to a public IP that was not in use but was blocked by data dumping. That’s all, nothing has happened in any other critical system. That happens today.
The object on the DarkWeb itself is critical. The person who wants to sell it has to keep one or two samples. Not a single sample. So it is doubtful.
How many CDRs are dumped for storage? Today we will find out where the dumped storage, CDRs kept in any other scheme have been accessed.
The report already has a hacked date. Did Nepal Telecom have any information about this before?
We only found out after the news came. And only if we start looking for it has it not affected any of our critical systems. We don’t know what happened. If something has happened in the critical system, it is already known. We monitor our systems 24 hours a day. Alerts are issued in case of any serious attack.
Is it being said that the hackers under the protection of the Chinese government have hacked the servers of the telecom?
The report states that the Chinese hackers did it, but there is no true evidence. It is said that it is placed on the website of Darkwave, it is said that CDR is kept but there is no sample. Only Phils have cash. That too is contradictory.
Another thing is Nepal, Philippines, Taiwan. Not even specific. That is why this statement is controversial. The fact that the details are concise, the details are not factual, and the fact that there is no unauthorized access to our critical system so far means that there is ample room for doubt in such a report. If such a large-scale attack had taken place, it would have had some effect by now.
Like last year, we found that we had almost ‘attempted’ from the mobile app. That was an attempt at a top-up system. Knowing that immediately, we resolved. There are some loopholes in the gift-giving system, so we find out. Then we made OTT come by giving a gift to solve it. That was not the case before. When OTT did not come, a small loophole was seen.
Could it be related to the business with Telecom?
At present, the Nepal Telecom Authority has given licenses to various security audit firms. It may have been a scandal to boost their business.
Some time ago, the system of Nepal Telecom was down for about an hour and a half. Isn’t this case connected with that incident?
There is no connection between these two incidents. The first incident is of a different nature. The report of the incident is being finalized. It has nothing to do with it.
Critical systems are in private IP. If you are in public, you can enter, you cannot enter in private. As such, there is no connection between the two incidents.
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